NCJ Number
81359
Date Published
1980
Length
106 pages
Annotation
The extent, structure, activities, and membership profile of criminal motorcycle gangs in Quebec Province (Canada) are examined, and recommendations for dealing with their criminal threat are offered.
Abstract
There are 14 criminal motorcycle gangs in Quebec composed of about 300 members. Each gang has a president, who rules by intimidation that engenders fear in the members; a vice-president; a secretary responsible for the club's financial accounting and who may also serve as the strongarm man for any job; the members; and novices ('strikers'), who must be initiated and prove their worth before they can wear the club's badge. The clubs tend to seek out small communities with weak police forces, where they can establish control over the town through intimidation. Their primary criminal activities are drug trafficking and prostitution. The gangs in Quebec have a connection with the gangs in Ontario. The common link is supplied by two big clubs whose organization extends into the United States and even into Europe: the 'Outlaws' and 'Hell's Angels.' These organizational links facilitate drug trafficking and the trading of dancers and stripteasers between gangs that operate as entertainment agencies. Intimidation and physical violence are regularly used to force compliance by witnesses and those who resist the will of the gang. Gang members are in no way inhibited by ethical considerations or normative social restraints. They are a thoroughly criminal element conditioned by the milieu of the gang. The police should step up their surveillance of these gangs, including infiltration of their membership, and licenses of bars, restaurants, and cabarets used by gangs to distribute drugs should be revoked.